Mikael Avatar Stjernvall
May 10, 20172 min
Cerebral palsy bodybuilding
I only have one good cerebral palsy bodybuilding story. That’s when I meet Nabil. An Egyptian bodybuilding profile.
Nabil Abdel Kader, born in Egypt, but living in Sweden. Now at the age of 80. He won a major bodybuilding competition in 1971 or 1973. Whether it was World Cup or Mr Universe, I have no idea.
At his gym in Stockholm hung a photo with Nabil Abdel Kader where the boxer Muhammad Ali handles his biceps. At that time, echo, the quote: It’s me, Björn Borg and the Pope who is the greatest on earth, Muhammad Ali.
I’m not Christian but raised in Södertälje (Sweden) where tennis player Björn Borg grew up. And to meet Nabil where the quote from Ali, it was like became closer to my reality.
I work in Nabil’s gym thanks to my mentor Abdo. This was many years before I started training for Paralympics. Nabil told me that my biceps had a perfect shape for development in bodybuilding. Nabil seriously thought that I would work out for bodybuilding.
Every time I was in the gym he talked to others about my biceps and many times I had to tense my less handsome arms, which I thought, so people could see my biceps form.
Big muscular bodybuilding men also felt on my muscle.
It’s one in 1000 or even one in 10,000 that has a biceps like me, said Nabil. I was 16 years or 17 years old (mid 80’s) and thought this was very embarrassing. Today a funny anecdote from my teenage years.
20 years later I talk again with Nabil Abdel Kader and told me about my achievements in athletics. He still thought that I would practice bodybuilding and I was not even 40 years old. There was no bodybuilding career for me.
Nabil told him that he ate 20 raw eggs and drank 12 liters of milk a day when he competed. A diet I probably would not manage …
Abdo (Abdelrahman Elkhatib *) who took me to Nabil has made me understand how much the music means to me. My first mentor Abdo taught me the music world and its creation. Today, when I make music, Abdo is all the time with me. Nabil is one of many profiles of people I’ve met through Abdo.
This story is just one of many in my life bank … Thank you for reading here. Please leave a comment what you like about my stories …
At the delivery of the Nobel Prize for Literature to the Egyptian author Naguib Mafouz in 1988, Abdo performed at the Nobel dinner in the City Hall of Stockholm.